
Serbia
Ajvar
Ајвар
Relish made from roasted peppers and eggplants, a popular condiment throughout the Balkans, traditionally prepared in autumn, versatile and savory.
southern-europe
Explore 138 foods connected to Serbia, from everyday staples to rare local specialties.

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12 editor-selected foods for understanding the place through what people eat.
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138 foods in this view. Filter by category, type, rarity, or search every recorded name.

Serbia
Ајвар
Relish made from roasted peppers and eggplants, a popular condiment throughout the Balkans, traditionally prepared in autumn, versatile and savory.

Turkey
Ajran
Ayran is a cold drink of yogurt, water and salt, whisked until lightly foamy. In Bulgaria it is a summer fountain and meal drink, never a sweet yogurt.

Serbia
Пребранац
Beans layered with a great weight of slowly fried onion and paprika and baked in a clay dish until a crust forms on top.

Lebanon
بقلاوة
Layers of paper-thin phyllo brushed with butter and filled with chopped walnuts or pistachios, baked crisp then drenched in lemon- or rose-scented sugar syrup. One square, cut diamond-small, is the shared Ottoman dessert of the whole eastern Mediterranean.

Serbia
Бељмуж
Young unsalted sheep cheese beaten into cornmeal over a fire until the mixture strings and separates into a pool of fat.

Vojvodina, Serbia
Бермет
A sweet fortified wine flavoured with herbs, spices and fruit by a recipe families keep to themselves, made on the slopes of one northern mountain.

Serbia
Кољиво
Boiled wheat berries mixed with ground walnut and sugar, blessed in church and shared at Slava and memorial services.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Burek
The Bosnian burek, layers of thin phyllo dough spiralled around a filling of minced beef and onions, baked until golden and crisp. In Bosnia, only the meat version is called burek.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarma
A Bosnian dish of pickled cabbage leaves stuffed with minced beef or lamb, rice, onion and paprika, slow-simmered in a flavourful broth, often with smoked meat.

Serbia
Бресквице
"Peach" shaped cookies with rum, walnut and dulce de leche.

Serbia
Попара
A Bulgarian breakfast of stale bread or kozunak soaked in hot milk, tea or yogurt, with crumbled sirene cheese and a knob of butter.

Bulgaria
Кисело мляко
Yogurt set with Lactobacillus bulgaricus, the bacterium named for the country — thick, sharply sour and eaten plain rather than sweetened.

Serbia
Купус салата
Shredded white cabbage salted, squeezed and dressed with oil and vinegar, served with grilled meat and roasts.

Serbia
Чесница
A round bread baked for Orthodox Christmas with a coin hidden inside, broken and turned by hand at the table rather than cut.

Serbia
Проја
A savoury cornmeal bread baked in a tray with cheese, yoghurt and sometimes spinach or cracklings, cut into squares.

Serbia
Погачице са чварцима
Small savoury scones made with pork cracklings worked into the dough, baked until the tops split and brown.

Serbia
Принцес крофне
Choux buns split and filled with a thick vanilla cream, dusted with icing sugar and eaten cold.

Hungary
Kifli
Kifli are Hungarian crescent-shaped yeast rolls that may be savoury or sweet, with flaky buttery layers.

Serbia
Црна Тамјаника
Crna Tamjanika is a dark-skinned Muscat grape wine from the Negotin and Rajac hills of eastern Serbia.

Serbia
Кремпита
A thick slab of vanilla custard between two sheets of puff pastry, chilled and cut into squares, dusted with icing sugar.

Serbia
Крофне
Yeasted dough balls fried until they carry a pale band round the middle, filled with jam and rolled in icing sugar.

United Kingdom
Сок од зове
Elderflower heads steeped with sugar, lemon and citric acid to a syrup, diluted with still or sparkling water.

Serbia
Палачинке
Thin pancakes rolled around walnut and sugar, jam, or chocolate spread, and sold from dedicated street windows late into the night.

Slavonia, Serbia
Fiš paprikaš
Spicy freshwater fish stew from Slavonia, made with carp, catfish, onions, paprika, and white wine, at least two fish varieties.

Serbia
Рибља чорба
A fiery red soup of river fish — carp, catfish, pike — cooked down with onion and a great deal of paprika.

Serbia
Аласка чорба
Several kinds of river fish simmered whole in a cauldron with paprika and hot peppers, served with the bones in and bread alongside.

Vojvodina, Serbia
Шненокле
Poached meringue clouds floating in a pool of vanilla custard, served cold in a large dish and spooned out.

Serbia
Фонтос колач
Fontoš kolač is a layered Banat sheet cake with walnut, jam and a tender baked crumb, kept by the Slovak community around Debeljača.

Vojvodina, Serbia
Футошки купус
Shredded soured cabbage layered with smoked ribs, sausage and bacon, baked for hours until the cabbage turns amber and the meat falls from the bone.

Serbia
Гибаница
Layers of thin filo crumpled with a filling of young cheese, eggs and kajmak, baked until the top layers crisp and the middle stays custardy.

Vojvodina, Serbia
Gulyásleves
Goulash soup is a Hungarian beef soup with paprika, potatoes, caraway, and csipetke noodles traditionally cooked in a bogrács.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Гурабије
Gurabija is a crumbly butter biscuit shared across Bosnia and Serbia, often made with flour, fat and a little sugar. The best versions are sandy and sturdy enough to dunk in coffee.

Serbia
Херовке
Herovke are filled sweet pastry rolls associated with the Slovak community of Kovačica.

Serbia
Хомољски мед
Honey from the wooded hills in the east, sold as acacia, linden or forest honey and prized as the country's benchmark.

Serbia
Медовача
Rakija sweetened and flavoured with honey, drunk warm in winter and used as a household cold remedy.

Novi Sad, Serbia
Индекс сендвич
Index sendvič is Novi Sad’s student sandwich of fried egg, ham, cheese and ketchup in a lepinja.